The power of having a container (for creative chaos and other things)
I have a tiny tray by my desk that I pile dirty dishes on.
The tray is small and green with a painted filigree pattern and matching handles from the Halloween section of a big box store one year.
The dishes are mostly mugs and tea strainers, a bowl of pistachio shells, an empty toast plate, sometimes a teapot.
As the day goes on, I add dishes to the tray.
When the tray is full, I bring the dishes to the kitchen.
(Though never on the tray, I just realized. Just a few handfuls at a time until the tray is cleared. The tray does not leave its spot by my desk. Possibly for fear of desk debris encroaching.)
There are a couple things I love about this dirty dishes set up:
- I no longer run out of mugs.
- It is adorably twee. When I have a tiny tray with a teapot and a mug and the remains of a plate of toast, I feel like I just had a tea party. Even though that was not the experience of consuming that food.
- It is the perfect use for this tray. Which I bought for something else that didn’t work out.
But perhaps most of all, I love how simple it is.
I talk a lot with clients about creating containers for creative chaos.
I’m not sure how creative a pile of dirty dishes is. But I know they are chaotic.
This tray creates a container with very clear boundaries. And when the container is full, this system has a very clear next step.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I just finished my pistachios and have a tray to empty.
Photo by Rodolfo Marques on Unsplash
Forming Habits: 3 Things I’ve Found Most Impactful
Habits call for a form of refinement and editing their process.
Obviously there are many people who have written extremely in-depth about habits and productivity and how to establish new habits or change old habits.
However I have found 3 things are most impactful when it comes to whether or not I’ll successfully establish a new habit.
There are more but this is my personal go-to list.
Thing 1: Make the new habit easy
This is obvious. If something is difficult, and you make it easier, it is easier to do. We all know that.
A convenient water bottle makes drinking water first thing in the morning easier.
Journal front and center with a pen next to it makes daily journaling easier.
Supportive hiking boots make taking a walk in the woods easier.
A default workout outfit makes working out easier.
Concrete and achievable subject, time limit and/or word count makes writing easier.
A trusted schedule makes posting easier.
Icebreakers make new projects easier.
Etc. Etc. Etc.
But what tripped me up for a long time, and what trips up a lot of my clients (get in touch if you’re interested in working together) is the process of making a habit easy usually takes many rounds of practice and refinement.
For example: I wanted to drink water first thing in the morning. I set the goal. I never did it.
I tried to habit-stack it with brushing my teeth. My plan was to: brush my teeth, rinse out my mouth, drink some water. I forget that third step more often than not. Apparently my morning tooth brushing is too well ingrained.
But my coffee routine should be able to support another beverage! I go to the kitchen, drink water, grab coffee, and continue. That should work right?
It did not.
It turns out that: go to the kitchen, grab a glass, fill a glass, drink water, put the glass in the dishwasher, and then grab coffee is too many additional steps.
(Apparently I am very particular about my morning routine.)
But there is one last place where drinking water could be added to my morning – as my coffee is cooling, but before I start drinking it.
Every morning my schedule allows, I drink my coffee while reading a book. (Highly recommend!) When I leave a filled water bottle next to my book, then I can put down my coffee, pick up the water bottle, drink water (close to) first thing in the morning, put down the water bottle, and pick up my book. And that is working.
Making new habits easy often requires trial, error, and refinement.
Keep removing barriers and keep trying new things until your habit is established.
Thing 2: Define key the parameters of the new habit
With the water example my key parameters were: 1) drink water, 2) first thing in the morning (by which I really meant before coffee), and 3) (implied) every day.
But I could have decided my key parameters were: a certain quantity of water, or before a certain time in the morning, or a specific number of days per week or per month.
I find this thing particularly helpful with habits that can get complex.
By defining the key parameters (usually informed by the goal or desired outcome) everything else is up for experimentation.
We’ll use marketing a business for this example:
If your goal is staying top of mind for clients and customers, maybe your key parameters are 1) frequency of contact and 2) consistency of brand voice and visuals.
If your goal is to reach new eyes, maybe your key parameters are 1) identifying new watering holes and 2) engaging with new audiences.
If your goal is to increase your comfort and gain familiarity with marketing your business, maybe your key parameters are 1) increase marketing tasks completed and 2) decrease time spent second guessing yourself.
When we clearly identify what we’re trying to achieve, we’re more likely to succeed.
But we’re also more likely to give ourselves the trial and error required to succeed.
Thing 3: Keep everything else flexible
This is the second half of Thing 2, and the reason to bother identifying the key habit parameters. Establishing a new habit is hard enough, increasing the difficulty by adding complexity makes it even harder.
If you’ve identified the key parameters of your new habit, I say, let everything else be up for experimentation. Find out what is working and what is not.
- Could something be even easier or more effective?
- What could be cut without disturbing the heart of the habit?
Because when we can connect with the heart of the habit, we can tap into our intrinsic motivation. We can meet our life where it is. We can meet ourselves where we are.
Then we can let go of how the habit looks and dig into what the habit is.
Photo by Prophsee Journals on Unsplash
Don’t ditch the revision process!
TL;DR Don’t give up when edits get hard. You might save a friend on a deadline.
Once upon a time I did a lot of sewing – professionally and personally. And because I did a fair number of weird projects, there wasn’t always a store bought pattern I could turn to. So I did a lot of pattern drafting too.
Unfortunately pattern paper is one of the few things you cannot get late at night in NYC.
If you know nothing about sewing, all you need to know for this story is: 1) pattern pieces on paper are the same size as the final piece. For example, if you’re sewing a pair of pants you need pattern pieces the length of a leg. 2) Pattern pieces can get large and cumbersome.
You typically buy pattern paper as a wide roll of paper. But you don’t have to use traditional pattern paper. You can use wrapping paper or kraft paper or medical exam table paper or some other options.
All of which I have used, and none of which were available late at night, on a deadline, which is when our story takes place. (As many of the best stories do.)
Fortunately, I did have printer paper and tape. So I started taping pieces of paper together, which I’ve done a number of times and always sucks.
Still more fortunately my roommate was awake, and asked what I was doing.
This particular roommate worked as a lighting designer and had just wrapped a show.
As I explained the dilemma and how pattern paper is ideal but taping together small pieces of paper works in a pinch, and this was indeed a pinch.
They asked if I wanted old lighting plots.
A lighting plot is like a blueprint for the lighting set up in a theater production. And key for this particular story, they were printed just like a blueprint.
I don’t recall the exact size, but any standard blueprint size is larger than 8 ½” x 11” printer paper. So I said an emphatic yes please.
I assumed there would be a small handful and I would mix blueprint sized paper with printer paper and save a little time.
I was very wrong.
My roommate came back with a roll of papers that would put a jumbo roll of wrapping paper to shame.
I must have looked a little surprised by the quantity because they said, sounding very tired, “there were a lot of edits and revisions on this show”.
We had a little back and forth. Are you sure you don’t need these? I’m sure. Do you want to double check them? No. What would you have done with all these otherwise? Stuck them in a corner until I recycled them.*
And eventually I took them, my roommate went to bed, and my project went a lot faster.
I used those papers on many more projects over the years. They were the perfect size for one medium sized pattern piece or a couple of small pieces. And having them on hand meant I rarely ran out of pattern paper in the middle of the night on a deadline again.
Every now and then I think back on that roll of papers – each one representing yet another revision or variation – whenever I want to quit after the third, or fourth (or 10th) round of edits on a piece.
Compared to that jumbo stack of revisions, my project is going great and one more round won’t hurt me.
Moral of the story: keep materials on hand and you won’t run out inconveniently.
And don’t give up on your project, even when the revisions seem like they will never end. (They may save a friend on a deadline.)
*They did eventually all get cut up and recycled. Just with a step in between.
And if you’re curious: one of the weirdest things I ever made was probably sewing a kindergarten chair to an orthopedic back support and covering the whole thing in neon green t-shirts.
Photo by Pickawood on Unsplash
